Effect of Some Growth-Stimulants on Growth, Yield and Storability of Onion Plants (Allium cepa L.)

Improving growth, quality and increasing yield of onion plants are important goals for growers torealize the requirements of the market and the consumers. Two field experiments were carried out during twosuccessive seasons; 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 at a private farm in El-Mahalla El-Kubra district, El- GharbiaGovernorate, Egypt to find out the influence of some growth- stimulants at different rates viz., yeast extract (2, 3and 4gl-1 ) seaweed extract (3,4 and 5 gl-1) and NAA (0.8, 1.2 and 1.6 gl-1) on vegetative, yield, and its components as wellas bulb storability of onion plants cv. Giza Red. Foliar spray with growth stimulants were applied thrice at 45, 60 and75 days after transplanting. The design of the experiment was a complete randomized blocks with three replicates. Theresults showed that foliar spray of seaweeds extract at 4 or 5 g/l followed by yeast extract 4g/l had the higheststimulation effect on onion plant growth traits (plant height, number of leaves and leaf fresh weight) total bulb yield andits components as well as N, P and K content of bulb tissues. Application of seaweed extract (5 g/l) showed the leastweight loss (%) and decay (%) of bulbs compared to the control and other treatments.